Talk Radio On Broadway – Controversy Is Entertainment
Talk Radio is a play about a late night radio host, Barry Champlain, who has always been controversial and who is also about to expand his popular talk show from Cleveland to move it to a broader nationwide audience. One night, he faces several callers who make him reveal his true feelings live on air. He is known to be abusive and insulting to his callers, and that is what makes him so popular. There are callers waiting in line to speak to him on air because they want to hear his scathing words and insults. He invites listeners to call him and to tell him what is troubling them, and then he deals with them in a cold and derisivecareless manner.
On the show hHe has to deal with all types of callers such as those who tell him that they are afraid of a garbage disposal, or talk to him about the surgeries they have had, or even one case when a caller is trying to wake up his girlfriend and thinks she is dead. Champlain deals with them all with his sharp tongue and scathing words. Based on his show ratings, his sponsors want to broadcast his show nationwide. This does not please Champlain though and he gets even worse and more perverse on air which scares the sponsors. And when he is asked to tone it down, he gets devastatingly abusive on his show egging his audience to give him their “best shot”.
The play was written by Eric Bogosian who also wrote the screenplay for and acted in the film byof the same name. He effectively portrays how people love scandals, misery and pain, and how Champlain takes advantage of thisat and makes his show popular with his controversial and abrasiveharsh words. Bogosian’s play is loosely based on real life radio talk show host, Alan Berg, who was murdered in 1984.
Talk Radio was first staged at the Public Theater in 1987 and seeing its success there, Bogosian decided to revive the play on Broadway. The play had its first preview on February 15, 2007 and it opened at Longacre Theater on March 11, 2007. The play is directed by Robert Falls and the cast includes Liev Schreiber as the acid-tongued Barry Champlain, Stephanie March as Linda MacArthur, Peter Hermann as Dan Woodruff and Michael Laurence as Stu Noonan. Incidentally, Michael Laurence stands in for Liev Schreiber in a couple of performances.
Liev Schreiber is well known for his powerful performances in Macbeth, Hamlet, Betrayal and Glengarry Glen Ross. He won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a pPlay, for Glengarry Glen Ross. Director Robert Falls has directed hits like Death Of A Salesman for which he won a Tony Award, as well as Shining City and Long Day’s Journey Into Night.
Tickets for Talk Radio are available from the box office at Longacre Theater. You could also order tickets on the phone or online. Considering that the play has a it has a limited run planned, it will be difficult to get tickets but if you book in advance then you can avoid being disappointed. A weekday show would probably be easier to get tickets for than a weekend.
About the Author
Al is the webmaster of the Talk Radio On Broadway site, a New York entertainment website with articles and reviews on every event as well as Talk Radio on Broadway tickets information.
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